Entry 3


 To watch my video click ⇛ here πŸ’“

For my third blog entry, I decided to interview my mentor teacher Mrs. Ortiz. As you can see from the interview, Mrs. Ortiz has quite the experience being an educator. Teaching for almost 20 years really gives you a wide variety of teaching experiences. In my interview, she discusses the techniques she used in her classroom and experiences she has had teaching ELL students. When I asked her the question regarding motivation and how it affects ELLs in the classroom, she had a really great response. She explained that the best thing to do is make sure they are comfortable in their learning environment. She would find ways to make sure that all her students felt safe and secure in the classroom, which connects with their willingness to learn. Ortega explains, “students who perceived their teachers to be controlling showed noticeably less intrinsic motivation” (Ortega, 2013). By showing students that their classroom has flexibility and security, students won’t lack their motivation to learn. Ortega also elaborates that, “In the beginning stages of L2 learning, instrumental types of orientation (wanting a good grade, passing university entrance exams, and soon) and classroom attitudes (towards the teacher, curriculum, materials, and soon) may influence the motivation of foreign language learners more heavily” (Ortega, 2013). There are a lot of factors that contribute to the motivation of students to learn in the classroom, that’s why you must find ways to achieve that level of comfort for them all, including the ELLs. Mrs. Ortiz also explained how important it was for her to make sure that the ELLs are receiving the accommodations that they need in the classroom. Although she is fluent in Spanish, she has had students from various cultural backgrounds in the classroom, which meant they spoke a variety of languages besides Spanish. She made sure to get to know her students and find ways to accommodate them. Overall, I enjoyed my interview with my mentor teacher, because I learned a few things about motivating ELL students and making sure their needs are met.




Reference:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. New York, NY: Routledge.

Comments

  1. Will ManchiApril 13, 2019 at 7:13 AM

    Hi Nicole! Great video. You highlighted motivation in your reflection on the video and as Ortega points out “motivation…can make language learners succeed or fail” (pp. 168). It is great that Mrs. Ortiz understands the importance of motivation for ELL students and takes measures to make sure that they are comfortable with their learning environments as learning a language, especially at a young age can be very intimidating. This reminded me of integrative motivation, where one of the conditions was “…attitudes towards the learning situation (teachers, curriculum) are positive” (pp. 171) and it seems like Mrs. Ortiz is meeting this condition in her classroom.
    References:
    Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. New York: NY: Routledge.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. jvilledaApril 14, 2019 at 10:04 AM

      Hi Nicole! I enjoyed reading your entry. Mrs. Ortiz seems to know how to motivate her students to learn. By her providing a safe and open environment for her students to learn, she is motivating her students to become intrinsic learners. Ortega stated, "Gardner (2001) believed the highest and most facilitative form of motivation is what he called the integrative motivation, which is attained only when three conditions are met: (1) the antecedent of integrativeness itself is high, (2) motivation quantity (that is, the combined amount of effort, enjoyment, and investment)is also high, and(3)attitudes towards the learning situation (teachers, curriculum) are positive." (Ortega, 2013, Pg.171)
      References:

      Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.

      Delete
  2. CherylApril 14, 2019 at 2:01 PM

    Hello!
    Mrs. Ortiz sounds like a great influencer and someone who has students need in her best interest. Wow, 20 years of experience, hats off to her! I really enjoyed hearing how she motivates her students. I think it is great that she creates and environment in which all her students know that everyone is there to learn, and all students want and have, the opportunity to participate and developed their English. According to Ortega, "motivation is usually understood to refer to the desire to initiate L2 learning and the effort employed to sustain it..." (pg. 185) She teaches a young age group that needs a great foundation to start their second language. By not making her students feel pressured, their desire to participate and learn more strengthens.
    Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge

    ReplyDelete
  3. Shayan P.April 14, 2019 at 5:46 PM

    Hey Nicole!

    I really liked your video! Your mentor teacher said something really great that stood out to me. She talked about how it’s important to make sure that the English language learner students are comfortable in their learning environment, and about how she made sure to make her students feel safe and secure in her classroom. I think that this is essential to creating a collaborative learning environment in which students feel like they are a part of a community. Ortega (2013) talks about how most people generally think that the term motivation refers to students’ desire to try and want to learn (p. 185), but very few people realize that an important part of motivation is the feeling of inclusion and safety. If ELL students, and students in general, feel like they are a part of a community, they will feel more motivated to participate.

    Ortega, Lourdes. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Routledge.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 4303kellermoriahApril 15, 2019 at 12:38 PM

    Hi Nicole!
    Thank you to you and Mrs. Ortiz for the interview. It was super enjoyable and inspiring to watch. Mrs. Ortiz seems like a very influential and motivating teacher. I really do feel as if the best kind of educator is one who places their student's needs first above all else. From this, educators can create a student based classroom that focuses closely and solely on prioritizing student's education. Motivation is such an important factor in education! Ortega (2013) states, "A caution worth keeping in mind, however, is that the association between motivation and behaviour changes as well as L2 learning success has always been viewed as reciprocal, not causal: being motivated nurtures more successful L2 learning, but, conversely, experiencing L2 learning success also boosts motivation to even higher levels, in a reinforcing cycle. Thus, motivation is indeed central in explaining L2 learning, but it cannot be reduced to a few variables, nor can it be
    exhausted with just a few questionnaires and group data" (p. 188).
    Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownApril 16, 2019 at 9:14 PM

    Hi Nicole!

    I really enjoyed watching your interview. I love hearing teaching stories that are truly inspiring such as Mrs. Ortiz's. What really stood out to me was her knowledge of motivation. Creating that environment that makes the students feel safe and a place for mistakes. Once students see that and create that relationship with their classmates and the teacher than they can truly start learning. According to Ortega, "positive task attitudes resulted in more L2 output being produced while doing the task" (Ortega, 2013). Reason for that is because once that relationship and the environment are set the students can begin breaking down those walls and trying.

    Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Entry 2

Hi! Click→  here to watch my video!πŸ’• In this video, I interviewed my boyfriend, Sergio who is 24 years old. After listening to his feedback about learning English as his second language, I found out some new things about him that I didn’t know about before. Growing up speaking only Spanish in his household seemed to not conflict much with his journey to learn English. According to the interview, he learned mostly from his peers around him not just in the academic setting, but outside school as well. This meant that he learned English in a more naturalistic manner. In the text, Ortega explains,” naturalistic learners learn the L2 through informal opportunities in multicultural neighborhoods, schools and workplaces, without ever receiving any organized instruction on the workings of the language they are learning” (Ortega, 2013). Although he did learn in a more naturalistic way, that does not mean there was no exposure in his academic setting. He explains that his teacher would...
Read more

Entry 1

Click here to watch my video ➜  entry 1 πŸ˜ƒ Hi I’m Nicole Drake! Welcome to my first blog video entry. So, This is my last semester of college at UH and I’m very excited to pursue my dreams once I graduated. I will be graduating with my bachelors in education and I will be EC-6 certified. As for grade levels, I would love to teach 5 th grade, but ever since I began student teaching with kindergartners, I became very open minded and I am very open to all grade levels. As for specific subjects, I would love to be able to teach science, but language arts would be my second passion. As you can see from my video you can quickly see that my main source of understanding the struggle of acquiring a second language was from my grandmother. Although this is currently my main source of understanding, the book pointed out some very understandable and inspiring statements. Ortega explains,” we take it for granted that all humans have the potential to accomplish all of these amazing feats i...
Read more